Social insecurity

Here are excerpts from a speech delivered recently by former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., co-chairman of the bipartisan national debt commission:

"The final blow here is Social Security. I have had more guff from people over 60, the nastiest bunch of emails, brutish stuff, foul. And people over 60 aren't even affected by any reform that's ever been yet suggested, and they howl like a gut-shot panther because they are goaded on by the 'senior groups.'

"And forget whether Social Security is part of the national debt or separate; it's the biggest expenditure of the government, so if you want to play hide and seek with it, go ahead, but it won't go away. It's $900 billion negative cash flow today and it started down that road in May 2010. In the year 2033, less than 20 years from now, you're going to waddle up to the pay window and get a check for 23 percent less. And who is telling us that? The trustees of the system, respected Republicans and Democrats.

"...How about your grandchildren and your children? I asked AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). I said are there any patriots in here or just marketers? Go look at their publications. It's about cruises and insurance and ... erectile dysfunction ads and other things like that. It's funny, but it ain't funny. It is a marketing paper. And I said to them, 'Why don't you get in the game?' They know fully what to do. And what they need to do is the chained CPI (Consumer Price Index, and the chained CPI is a modest proposal for controlling Social Security costs). I know that sounds crazy. The president has suggested we go to this new formula. Erskine and I also recommended it.

"Now the AARP is doing full-page ads of people with tears running down their cheeks saying they are going to be "out to lunch" forever if the CPI is chained. And yet if we do it, it can save about $120 billion over 10 years.

"Anyway, the Social Security trust fund money wasn't stolen. The reserves weren't stolen by politicians. The law provided that if the government needed bucks, then you went to the reserves — you pulled it out — there are T bills in there. When government needed the bucks you went and got it out and put in the IOU notes, and it works.

"So Erskine, I said, 'Why don't we do something good?' We didn't touch SSI. We didn't touch food stamps, we didn't hurt the most vulnerable. Just go to the chained CPI and then, a critically important step would be to make it more progressive. And then we said we should raise the retirement age to 68 by the year 2050. The AARP said, 'How will old people ever be able to prepare for that?'